Drivin' Every Kind of Rig That's Ever Been Made

Day 4 of our Big Rock Candy Best Records of 2012!  Things are gettin' serious, all y'all!  Heaven and Hell only know what might fall into the TOP TEN, based on the killer rekkids we've got for ya today!  Can you handle the excitement?  It's all about the Rawk, baby, so kick back, pop a top, Country fans be warned (we'll make ya happy soon), and ramp yr rocking chair up a few speeds, we're rollin'...!

Big Rock Candy Mountain Best Records of 2012, Part 4!

20. Wild Billy Childish and the Spartan Dreggs: Dreggradation LP/ Coastal Command LP

Billy Childish again.  Of course.  2 LP's released simultaneously, both bearing Childish's inimitable stamp of punk garage fury (with a hint of mod-era Who, mayhaps?), this time  full of very English inside-jokes, mythology, and philosophy.  You feel smarter, while still pogoing and banging your head against the brick wall of society.

Spartan Dreggs: Radio Dreggs (mp3)

19. John Wesley Coleman III: Trans Am Summer Blues/ Last Donkey Show LP

One of America's finest songwriters, sleazed backroads country laments, noisome bar band ravers, delicate meandering, big giant handclappin' rawk, lo-fi scuzz transistor, a spilled map mess of everything great in the world.

John Wesley Coleman III: Saturday Night (mp3)

John Wesley Coleman III: Hangin' Around (mp3)

18. Heart Attack Alley: Living in Hell LP

Trashy deepdown blues, green-furred harmonica destruction, vampy swamp-noir vocals, the riverboat on the Mississippi listing dangerously floods-a comin'.

Heart Attack Alley: Don't Waste My Time (mp3)

17. Diamond Rugs: Diamond Rugs

End of the night, last band on earth lookin' for a beer and a lay, racing vintage jalopy horns and pedal steel glory.


Diamond Rugs: Hightail (mp3)

16. The Coup: Sorry To Bother You

Best protest record of the year, yr mind and yr loins on fire, deeply funky, shimmer and shake the end times with the party in full swing Boots Riley yr emcee, floorboards stomped and the downfall of western civilization is a hootenanny, "Magic Clap" the best song you've heard all year.


The Coup: Magic Clap (mp3)

15. Natural Child: Hard In Heaven/ For the Love of the Game

Dirty, dirty rawk'n'roll, snotty like it should be, a little Ian Hunter a little Replacements a little boogie the shack down, crude 70's geetar girls girls girls summer cruising pumping out yr Trans Am.

Natural Child: 8 AM Blues (mp3)

14. Liminanas: Crystal Anis

Fizzy droned summer pop like Stereolab meets Nico meets Ye Ye meets Lee Nancy Serge and Jane, sweet and very sour, delicate and sharp, endless starry night, willow tree aflame with fireflies.

The Liminanas: Salvation (mp3)

13. 10 Cent Fuck Flicks: 8 Songs About Drugs and Sex

Completely fucked up scuzzsleaze songs about, well...fucking and drugs, not subtle but devil may care in short bursts of wicked raunch,  filthy low-bottom rawk inspired in jizz-soaked beer-stained urgency, more alive in lowest-common denominator you want this like yr latest fix.

 10 Cent Fuck Flicks: Chew You Up (mp3)

12. Left Lane Cruiser and James Leg: Painkillers


The mighty and right Rev. James Leg teams up with god's favorite band,  Left Lane Cruiser, for a grooved out, righteous, dirt road workout, filthy and primal, jesus on the lp runout blessing his children on the tribal satan hallelujah fury, fire on the mountain scorched earth below!


Left Lane Cruiser and James Leg: Ramblin' On My Mind (mp3)

11. Chicken Diamond: II

What we said earlier this year:

"Haulin' devil-boogie junk in an Ed Roth jalopy,straight outta France, this is a record that burns, deep hellfire blues and gasoline vapor trail.  Chicken Diamond, his very unrighteous self, kicking voodoo sleaze across a dirty horizon,  howling and gnashing for your soul, blurred bluespunk, one man prophet, the pedal goes down and it's straight to the cliff of damnation, jeering the whole way. "

Chicken Diamond: Country Song (mp3) 

Seriously, support the artists!  Fuck the man!  Corporate rock sucks!

Ringing In

Happy New Years Eve!  We'll take a break from our Best of 2012 List to wish all y'all a great night and a peaceful day!  Here's a few tunes to keep the party going, from early on to the stumbling break of dawn! Enjoy, and behave!

Part 4 of the Big Rock Candy Mountain Best of 2012 List returns tomorrow!  We're almost there!


Swing the old year away!


Billy Ward and His Dominoes: Ringing in a Brand New Year (mp3)

Johnny Otis: Happy New Year Baby (mp3)

Jimmy Jules and the Nuclear Sound System: The New Year (mp3)

Cameos: New Year's Eve (mp3)

The Qualities (Sun Ra): Happy New Year to You (mp3)

Blind Lemon Jefferson: Happy New Year Blues (mp3)

Be careful out there!

I'm Drunk and Dirty, Don't Ya Know

Small technical difficulties with our LP to digital making us late today, but here we are!  Day 3 of Big Rock Candy Mountain's 50 Best Records of 2012!

Not much to say, other than encouraging folks to let us know their faves of the year, in case we missed something!

On with it then...

The Big Rock Candy Mountain Best Records of 2012, Part 3

30. Radar Eyes: Radar Eyes

Blip and bleep space travel over Beach Boys fuzz incognito, the last wave on nuclear ground.

Radar Eyes: In Time (mp3)

29. T.Tex Edwards: Intexicated!

Cowpunk castration, a collection of sorts, psycho hillbilly wipe 'em off after shame, stomp and shit-caked boots travelin' gothic sugarcane sleaze.


T.Tex Edwards: Cravin' (mp3)

28. The Golden Boys: Dirty Fingernails

Bar band glory, organ-drenched geetar salvation, last body in the bar looking for love or fucking either one will do, the stink of stale beer and 3 AM hullabaloo.

The Golden Boys: Outta The Dark (mp3)

27. Puffy Areolas: 1982: Dishonorable Discharge

Nasty-ass scuzz, with theme deconstructed out of blown speaker dissolve, cranked-out blown, and blasted fuzzed out vocal disappear. 


Puffy Areolas: Not Tonight (mp3)

26. Andre Williams: Night and Day (with the Sadies)/ Life /  Hoods and Shades

The legend...3 albums in one year, the very soul of rhythm, hard lived and full of piss, garagecountyrhythmandbluessoulbaby...yes...you cannot fuck with this man!

Andre Williams and the Sadies: I Gotta Get Shorty Out of Jail (mp3)

25. Becky Lee and Drunkfoot: Hello Black Halo

Big stomp deepcountryblues trashgirl fuck you.

Becky Lee and Drunkfoot: Shoot 'em Down (mp3)

24. Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs: Sunday Run Me Over

More Holly Golightly exploration of old weird america, perhaps her best ever, slicing out cotton fields on fire viewed from creaky boards with history crashing and slipping into god, who has abandoned the shack, the devil alive in fire.

Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs: Goddamn Holy Roll (mp3)

23. Useless Eaters: C'est Bon LP/ Addicted to the Blade 7"

The last bastion at the end of the world, sharded and angular, sleazed-out full of garbage leavings and lo, a saviour!


Useless Eaters: Receiver (Drop the Bomb) (mp3)

22. Hank Haint: Blackout

Yr best Hank Williams for the new millennium,  in rawking chair electric spinning sparks against dying fireflies, the world at it's cowboy end big hat smoldering on wooden planks dreaming of yesteryear.


Hank Haint: Keep On Walking (mp3)

21. The Hussy: Weed Seizure

Psyh-destruction, kaboom, the peace sign shining neon with shards of bellybutton gazing focused into frenzy, toked and twisted into fuzzy blasting aural explosion!
The Hussy: Bang Bang (mp3)


As ever, support the bands and the labels!

Driven By The Snow

 Man, we want that hi-fi system above....

Here we go!  Day 2 of the Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 50 Rekkids of 2012!  Good times!

Y'all might notice a lack of 7"'s on the list...gonna give 'em their own list eventually.

Also, y'all might notice that we have virtually no major label releases on our list (maybe a couple of exceptions coming up).  Oddly, that's not so much on purpose, but more, well, the fact that the "majors" don't really release anything interesting.  It's just not in their nature.

The Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 50 Records of 2012, Part 2

40.  Eric Burdon & The Greenhornes: S/T

A legend returns, garage band in tow, for typically tart shout-along, taking the piss, no prisoners.

Eric Burdon & The Greenhornes: Black Dog (mp3)

39. Singing Loins: Here On Earth

Busker-influenced (from way before the recent wave of lame pretenders) stomping and  back-porch hootin'!


The Singing Loins: Happy Me Up (mp3) 

38. Soulsavers: The Light, The Dead Sea

Swirled black as night sinful gospel, fading in and out like am radio crackle, deep beats and symphonic hallelujah if trance was heaven, and we won't tell who does "vocals".

37. Teen: In Limbo

Ronettes meet the Cure, girls in summer fuzzy and sepia, produced by Sonic Boom of Spectrum and Spacemen 3, so that's what you can expect.


Teen: Better (mp3)

36. Spiritualized: Sweet Heart Sweet Light

The sound of psych god moving across the surface.

Spiritualized: Hey Jane (mp3)

35. K-Holes: Dismania

Nooo Yawk no-wave inspired freakout and splatter, geetar frenzy sax destruction deconstructed  blown a fuse.

K-Holes: Rats (mp3)

34. Ex-Cult: Ex-Cult

Punk from a garage filled with paint fumes, traded vocal shouty, shambling, stanky, Memphis on fire!

Ex-Cult: Better Life Through Chemistry (mp3)

33. Atomic Suplex: Bathroom Party 

Rawk baby, lose yr eardrums the party's started, everyone's naked and fucking toward the end of time, balloons popped into helium madness!


Atomic Suplex: I'm On (mp3)

32. Cowbell: Beat Stampede

DeepBluesCountryFreakbeatR'nB mashemup, timeless.

Cowbell: Oh Girl (mp3)

31. Ketamines: Spaced Out

Psych-fuzzed trash snot, surged with organ and vintage rawk, yum!

Ketamines: Teenage Rebellion Time (mp3)


Please support independent artists and labels.  Buy a record or 7".  Take a chance and go see a show at yr local dingy club!  Fuck arena spectacles!

I've Been Warped By The Rain

The end of the year insanity continues today with Part 1 of the world famous Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 50 Records of the Year!

One of our favorite quotes this year is by Gyp Rosetti on Boardwalk Empire.  We're gonna paraphrase it a tad..."What's that?  A list?  I got a list.  He got a list.  He got a list...Everybody got lists!".  And so do we, of course.

As ever, we stress that this is our favorite records of the year.  We think they're pretty swell, but making a qualitative decision in regards to what is "best", even in this accelerated culture, seems premature.  Which of these records will we still be listening to 5 years from now?  Who can tell?  Most of these records don't appear on the majority of the "major" lists out there, both in print media and in the more widely-read cognoscenti of the interwebs.  That's ok.  We're not beholden to advertising dollars or bottom lines.  We'd like to believe we do whatever small part we can to help push bands and records that folks might like, if given the opportunity.  For what it's worth.

Usually we write some annoying, long-assed assessment of the music industry, or whatnot, at this point.  Eh.  What's the point?  Some great records came out this year, and some annoying ones did, as well.  While the music industry might be suffering, and justifiably so, music itself is doing just fine, thank you very much.  Bands are finding new and innovative ways to market themselves and get their tunes out there into the hands of fans, without the help of suits who view records as commodity rather than art and self-expression.  That's a good thing, and a trend to watch, one which can only improve with time and experimentation.    And vinyl continues to thrive, and has returned from the realm of hipster snobbery to a medium that folks across all spectrums can enjoy.  So, we're generally pretty positive these days. That's enough said, we think.

We've narrowed our records down to 50, which was actually pretty tough (we listen to a shit-ton of music, and are generally grouchily enthusiastic.).  If we missed anything, which is inevitable, let us know what yr favorites were!

Without further rambling, then:

The Big Rock Candy Mountain Top 50 Records of 2012, Part 1

50. Bailter Space: Strobosphere

New Zealand space fuzz glory, burn the milky way in rusted tanker, god drunk in slow fire  void.

Bailter Space: Blue Star (mp3)

49. Mean Jeans: Mean Jeans On Mars

Super Rawk, burn down the AC/DC crown, lowest common denominator accelerated to the ends of the earth and yr mom thinks this is the best band ever.


Mean Jeans: Don't Stop Partying (mp3)

48. Spider Bags: Shake My Head

Fuzzy fizz,  snot flying loose into teenage rebellion, with 60's garage doors shut down and shakin'!


Spider Bags: Friday Night (mp3)

47. The Men: Open Your Heart

Rawk rangers on speed dial, angular buzzsaw ripping wooden toy soldiers raw, tribal rhythm bursting heart attack shout, psych-groove-adelic!


 The Men: Candy (mp3)

46. Tindersticks: The Something Rain

Ultimate Autumnal soul, deep rain washed-out forest spouting orange and red, muted by last trumpet keening slow sudden peace.


Tindersticks: This Fire of Autumn (mp3)

45. Bill Fay: Life is People

Startled sparrow in spring, a legend returned with piano plinked in cosmic groove and stillness with all the universe circling now.  

Bill Fay: Cosmic Concerto (Life Is People) (mp3)

44. Mind Spiders: Meltdown


Urgent geetar pop showdown, throbbed and organ drenched, a time-elapsed alternate earth top of the pops throwdown, stand on yr stacks cocks out superstar spangle. 


Mind Spiders: On The Radio (mp3)

43. Chicken Snake: Trouble on my Doorstep


Scuzzy cowboy corn-shucking, back porch on fire sleazing backroads harmonica and slide, hollerin' the holler 'til the cows come callin' all hot and bothered.


Chicken Snake: I Am A Lonesome Hobo (mp3)

42. Rayon Beach: This Looks Serious

Psych-pop sludge'n' shimmy, dirty spangled revival, surfing oil spilled waves of sound and broiled muddy water.  


Rayon Beach: Sister Fever (mp3)

41. Walter Daniels and the Giblets: 10" S/T

Harmonica-dreched  trashcountryblues, a living legend, big-footed and stompin', teaching them thar youngun's how god made music, crusted and black bottomed, primordial torn from dinosaur bones and tarpit sludge. 

Walter Daniels and the Giblets: The Big Break (mp3)


Part 2 tomorrow!  Support the artists!

On the Eve

As Mr. Sovine famously said, here it is Xmas.  Time to celebrate the birth of Shane MacGowan! We made it!  Our War on Christmas (tm) has reached it's end for another year. 

And don't forget to tune back in Wednesday for the start of our world famous Big Rock Candy Mountain Best of 2012 extravaganza!

Regular readers will already know the two songs we're posting today.  They're our two favorite Xmas songs.

One is a very humorous take on family life at Christmas-time.  The other is a sweeping epic of love, hope, despair, and the very human condition of dreaming for a better life.  We could write (and have written) paragraphs about the songs, but let's just let them speak for themselves.

Have a great Holiday, however you choose to celebrate. 

The Pogues: Fairytale of New York (mp3)

Robert Earl Keen: Merry Christmas From the Family (mp3)

Thanks.

Red Nose Santa

Almost there! 

Today's Xmas cookies are courtesy of the mighty Otis Gibbs, the sublime Young Republic, and the wailin' Titus Turner! 

Rockin' on a Reindeer!

Otis Gibbs: Crap For Christmas (mp3)

Young Republic: Merry Christmas Again (mp3)

Titus Turner: Christmas Morning Blues (mp3)

Thanks for visitin'.  Have a seat and make yrselves at home!

Well, the world didn't end, so we figger Santa Shane MacGowan's birthday on December 25th is still happenin'. 

Gettin' closer to the big day, so let's break out the fruitcake, and slice off a big chunk.

Like Santa, we're all over the map today.  A little something for everyone, and everything for all! 

2 more days to go!

Santa's got a thing for chimneys!

 Dennis Turner: Santa Claus, Santa Claus (mp3)

Ian Fenn: Rockin' Rollin' Christmas (mp3)

Kay Martin and Her Bodyguards: I Know What You Want For Christmas (mp3)

Johnny Houston: Give Me A Kiss For Christmas (mp3)

The Yobs: Another Christmas (mp3)

The Von Bondies: Aint No Chimney in the Big House (mp3)

Charles Brown: Christmas In Heaven (mp3)

Loretta Lynn: Gift of the Blues (mp3)

Be good to each other!

Good Gravy Santa

Just a few more days until December 25th, the birth of Shane MacGowan.  Gonna go a bit crazy over the next few days, as is our tendency, so buckle up yr Santa suits and get the sleigh gassed up.

Before the true insanity, let's take a Holiday stroll down Americana (whatever that is) lane.

We've got The Band (who have some Canadian members) going old-timey on a special night.  Chip Taylor examines sibling rivalry for the Yuletide.  The seminal Paul Kelly (who is Australian) watches an Xmas celebration from afar, and shares the gift of gravy.  And the Trainwreck Riders take their sleigh on a long, dusty path!


Ho Ho Ho!



The Band: Christmas Must Be Tonight (mp3)

Chip Taylor: Bastard Brothers (mp3)

Paul Kelly: How To Make Gravy (mp3)

Trainwreck Riders: Christmas Time Blues (mp3)


Drop a few bucks in the red bucket if you have a chance.

Shut Down Santa

Just a reminder.  Starting a week from today is our world famous Big Rock Candy Mountain Best of 2012 List, where we count down 50 or so of our Top 10 favorite records of the year (yeah, we know...).  Stay tuned!

Now, on with the festive show.

Santa's hitting the beach today, waxing his board (heh), and surfing his bag of toys to all points warm and tropical.  Special thanks to Untamed Youth, The Surfaris, Lord Douglas Byron, and The Chevelles for helping Santa on his way!

Santa Hangs Ten!

Surfaris: A Surfer's Christmas List (mp3)

Lord Douglas Byron: Surfin' Santa (mp3)

Untamed Youth: Santa's Gonna Shut 'em Down (mp3)

The Chevelles: Come All Ye Faithful Surfer Girls (mp3)

Thanks for stopping by. Please support independent artists and businesses this Holiday Season.